How to Increase Keyboard Speed in Windows

Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 use a default built-in keyboard setting that determines the speed of your keyboard when you type. You can, however, modify this setting to increase your productivity -- to change, for instance, the amount of time that you have to hold down a key for a character to re-appear, or the speed at which characters tend to repeat themselves. Additionally, the keyboard setting also enables you to increase the speed at which your cursor blinks within forms or word-processing applications.

Increasing Keyboard Speed

Open the Control Panel via the Start menu or the Power User menu (Windows-X). Enter "Keyboard," (without quotes) into the search bar, then click the "Keyboard" search result. Under the Speed tab, the Character Repeat section contains two sliders that affect how your keyboard reacts when you hold down a key. Moving the "Repeat Delay" slider to the right reduces the initial amount of time before a character starts to repeat itself, while moving the "Repeat Rate" slider to the right reduces the delay between each character repetition. The "Cursor Blink Rate" section contains a slider that controls how often the cursor blinks. Before clicking "Apply" to finalize the changes, you can use the vacant box under "Click Here and Hold Down a Key to Test Repeat Rate" box to test out your changes.